There are key differences in A World Divided that even a World at War Veteran needs to know about. I thought I would share some of those changes here.

UPDATE: I mistakenly wrote supply when I meant movement for the rule about surface fleets and have changed it. I also corrected a mistake I made on Submarine Fleet attack rules.

- Flak no longer fires on aircraft overflying the region on the way to a target. Only fighters will fire on aircraft overflying the region. Flak of course fires when the region is the target and nothing fires on egress from the target.

- Each Flak can fire on two aircraft. Flak will go through non-fighters before getting to the fighters. If there are more Flak than aircraft, Flak get a +2 to attack for every extra (one will get +2 if there is one extra, two will get +2 if there are 2 extra, etc.).

- Only Air and Naval units suffer from the -1 Evasion Fired Upon penalty. This penalty does not count during Op-Fire.

- Non-transport surface naval units that move into a sea region that does not contain a friendly island or coastal region expend an extra movement point to enter.

- You can spend up to 1 research in any tech line until 1941, and 2 research in any tech line thereafter until the following condition is met: Germany or Japan is at war with Russia or the US.

- Atomic Bomb capacity is Land Attack 9 instead of Land Attack 10 for Heavy Bombers. If a Heavy Bomber with Land Attack 9 attacks a Factory and scores two hits (damage x 2), one Population Center and one Population Point in the Pool are removed from the region.

- Only Heavy Bombers have unadjusted Infrastructure Attacks. Tactical Bombers and Carrier Airgroups have their Land Attack reduced by 1 die for Rail Attacks. Tactical Bombers, Carrier Airgroups, and Fighters have their Land Attack reduced by 3 die for Factory and Resource Attacks. Fighters have their Land Attack increased by 1 die for Airfield Attacks. You can no longer attack an already dead Infrastructure target (you can commit to the attack, but not fire on the target).

- Submarine Fleets only fire on Surface Fleets (besides Transports) 33% of the time they have an opportunity to fire during normal combat. A Submarine Fleet that has been fired at, will not Op-Fire that current player turn (so it would allow transports to unload without molestation for instance) because that Submarine Fleet is considered to have been driven deep after the first contact with ASW. Submarine Fleets, when they are not the phasing player (they are not the attack initiator), gives a penalty to the unit firing on it depending on the number of Submarines in the region (-3 if 1, -2 if 2, -1 if 3, 0 if 4 or more). This modifier is combined with the Veteran/Elite and SIGINT modifier and then the Modifier Limit is applied. All attacks to/from a Submarine Fleet are direct attack and are not doubled.

- The amount of Suppression needed to damage a unit is its Durability times five. The amount of Suppression that a unit takes is your roll plus your modifier (doubled), divided by Random(modified Evasion). A unit can never be destroyed through Suppression, only damaged. Artillery, Aircraft vs Land, Anti-Aircraft, Op-Fire, and Naval Bombardment are examples of Suppression Attacks. Normal Attacks also can accrue Suppression. Half the normal attack (with modifiers doubled) rounded down is divided by the modified Evasion. The result rounded down is the Suppression applied

- Units amphibiously attacking must begin their turn either in a coastal or island region. You can no longer move into a second enemy region after you have moved into the first region, even if it was empty. This necessitates Transport chains from the beginning to the end for each unit being brought to the battle (since hopping is no longer possible). Also, there are limits to the amount of units that can amphibiously invade. You can invade with 3 units if your amphibious capacity is 3, 4 if it is 4, 5 if it is 5, and an unlimited amount if it is 6. Armor units count as 2 units. You can still bring in more units after the region is taken using Transport capacity.

- Japan can convert any aircraft to/from Kamikaze status starting in Spring 1944. The benefits of Kamikaze status are an increase Ship Attack to 5 for Fighters and 6 for Heavy Bombers, Tactical Bombers, and Carrier Aircraft (from 1, 4, 3, and 5 respectively). The disadvantages include not being able to participate in Air-to-Air combat, being destroyed after the battle with a Fleet, and no Torpedo attack.

- Surface Naval units that move into a sea region that does not contain a friendly island or coastal region must spend an extra Supply point to enter.

First of all, transport fleets never use supplies. And I don't think the rule described above exists. As far as I know it's like that: Light fleets, heavy fleets and carriers need one supply for using up to 5 movement points. When moving farther, they need additional supply: +2 for light fleets, +3 for carriers and +4 for heavy fleets.

- Submarine Fleets only fire on Surface Fleets (besides Transports), 33% of the time. When defending, Submarine Fleets never fire but instead go deep. Submarine Fleets do suffer from the – 1 Evasion penalty for previously being fired upon, even when going deep. All attacks on Submarine Fleets are Indirect Attacks, so their modifiers are doubled (negative or positive).

I dont have the time right now to verify - but it sounds wrong to me. As far as I know attacks against Subs are direct attacks and subs do fire back when defending still subject to the 33% rule though. Subs which have been fired upon do not opfire - but thats a different matter entirely.

Thanks for those clarifications. I went back and did some tests on Submarine combat and have rewritten this part as follows:

- Submarine Fleets only fire on Surface Fleets (besides Transports) 33% of the time they have an opportunity to fire during normal combat. A Submarine Fleet that has been fired at, will not Op-Fire that current player turn (so it would allow transports to unload without molestation for instance) because that Submarine Fleet is considered to have been driven deep after the first contact with ASW. Submarine Fleets, when they are not the phasing player (they are not the attack initiator), gives a penalty to the unit firing on it depending on the number of Submarines in the region (-3 if 1, -2 if 2, -1 if 3, 0 if 4 or more). This modifier is combined with the Veteran/Elite and SIGINT modifier and then the Modifier Limit is applied. All attacks to/from a Submarine Fleet are direct attack and are not doubled.

- Only Fighters will participate in Air-to-Air combat. Heavy Bombers, Tactical Bombers, and Carrier Aircraft which are attacked in an Airfield attack stay on the ground and defend with no armor (no die removal) and 5 Evasion with no Evasion modifiers.

Actually on the defense all Fighters and Carrier Air in the regeion will participate in the air2air portion of the battle. On the offense all air units participate in the Air2Air and Air to ground portion of the battle. (unless some offensive units were matched with targets that are destroyed before they get a chance to fire)

I am mostly talking about an air attack with offensive advantage or at least equal number of fighters vs defensive fighters. The extra bombers may/might fire on the defensive air fighters/carrier air first, thus lowering there evasion as they have now been fired on. Not to mention the 1 out of 20 chance at a auto hit.

- Only Fighters will participate in Air-to-Air combat. Heavy Bombers, Tactical Bombers, and Carrier Aircraft which are attacked in an Airfield attack stay on the ground and defend with no armor (no die removal) and 5 Evasion with no Evasion modifiers.

What I mean to say is that the only defending aircraft that participate in Air-to-Air combat for normal attacks are Fighters and Carrier Airgroups. I did not have enough experience to realize that CA did also. Defending Heavy Bombers and Tactical Bombers also participate in normal attacks but only in the Air vs Land and Land vs Air phases. In that regard, the only units that can face defending Heavy Bombers and Tactical Bombers would be attacking Flak.

This next part I want to add I am not sure apart because I have very little experience with Airfield attacks:

To attack Heavy and Tactical Bombers, your will need to send planes on an Airfield attack. Any units that survive defending Fighters and Carrier Airgroups in Air-to-Air can then face the Heavy and Tactical Bombers who are on the ground with a defending evasion of 5 and no armor rating (and who do not fire back).

The reason I am unclear about this is because the manual is specific that Fighters have normal evasion and specific that everyone else has an evasion of 5. Does that mean that CA have an evasion of 5? Someone else has mentioned that CA defend in Air-to-Air. Does everyone else stay on the ground? Or is the person wrong and is it only Fighters that fight in Air-to-Air? I don't have time right now to run some tests because of PBEM games but if I do get time I will run some tests. If someone else knows, please post it here and I will update it above.

Hint: For those that can afford it, increasing LA for fighters is mighty handy for finishing off enemy air that are already heavily suppressed/damaged....... This makes a great difference when the battle for the skies over the Reich in contested.......even a 1 point improvement makes a for a more distinctive loss/kill ratio...........

_____________________________

"Those who would give up a little liberty for a little security deserve neither and will lose both." ~ Thomas Jefferson